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Antoine Tamestit

Biography

“His playing was distinguished by a lightness and rhythmic buoyancy that illuminated the varied dance characteristics of the suites. His crisp, spry sound in the faster movements became meltingly beautiful in the slower sections, like the Sarabande of the first suite; the whole work was enhanced by his graciously nuanced phrasing.”New York Times, August 2014

Antoine Tamestit has achieved the rare distinction as a violist of playing at the highest level with orchestra and being constantly in demand as a chamber musician and recitalist. In August 2014 he was re-invited to the Mostly Mozart Festival and performed a solo recital of Bach and Hindemith, plus a chamber music concert with Martin Fröst and Shai Wosner. The New York Times praised his “refined, poised timbre” and “passionate spark, imbuing the ensuing slow section with an elegant range of textures and colors. The final movement, which Mr. Tamestit compared to a “reflective Sarabande,” unfolded with soulful intensity”.

Tamestit’s repertoire ranges from the Baroque period to the contemporary and he has performed and recorded several world premieres including George Benjamin’s Viola, Viola with Tabea Zimmermann for Nimbus Records, and the Concerto for Two Violas by Bruno Mantovani written for Tabea Zimmermann and himself, which was premiered with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the WDR Cologne. In 2009, the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth wrote her concerto for Tamestit which he premiered in Vienna, Berlin, and Tokyo.

As soloist, Antoine Tamestit has worked with the Vienna PO, London Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchestra, Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, RSO Stuttgart, with major French orchestras including the Orchestre de Paris and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and with the several BBC symphony orchestras. He made his Russian debut at the Stars of the White Nights festival in the June 2014.

Chamber music and recitals are an important element of Antoine Tamestit's work and life and he is a regular guest in major halls across the world. He plays in a string trio with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Christian Poltera with whom he has appeared at the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals and recorded Mozart Divertimento and Beethoven Trio Op.9 for Bis Records, and in a trio with Jörg Widmann and Francesco Piemontesi. He plays in chamber music with artists including Leonidas Kavakos, Gautier Capucon, Emmanuel Ax, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Emmanuel Pahud, Nicholas Angelich, the Ebene and the Hagen Quartets, Cédric Tiberghien, Martin Fröst and Shai Wosner.

Future engagements include performances with the WDR Köln, Bamberger Symphoniker, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the at the Prague Festival, Festival d’Automne, twice at the Wigmore Hall, and in chamber concerts with Anne Sofie von Otter, Francesco Piemontesi and Jörg Widmann and the Trio Zimmermann. In the 2015/16 season Antoine Tamestit will premiere a concerto written for him by Jörg Widmann with the Orchestra de Paris and Paavo Järvi, and the Bayerischer Rundfunk and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Harding.

Antoine Tamestit has a distinguished discography. His recording of three of the Bach Suites on Naïve Records, released in November 2012, was described as “enchanting” by BBC Music Magazine (five stars) and his recording of Berlioz Harold in Italy with Marc Minkowski and Les Musicians du Louvre, also on Naïve, was ‘CD of the week’ and praised by the Daily Telegraph, “strengthened by the rich, burgundy timbre of Antoine Tamestit’s solo viola and the mellifluous lyricism and vitality of his playing”. Antoine Tamestit’s recording of Hindemith solo and concertante works recorded with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Paavo Järvi, released in 2014, was awarded five stars by BBC Music Magazine. In 2015 Antoine Tamestit’s performance of Berlioz’s Harold en Italie, which was recorded in November 2013 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, will be released by LSO Live as part of the ‘Gergiev’s Berlioz’ series.

Other notable recordings by Antoine Tamestit include solo works by Bach and Ligeti (Naïve/Ambroisie), Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with Renaud Capuçon, Louis Langrée and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Virgin Classics) and the Schnittke Concerto with Warsaw Philharmonic and Kitajenko (Naïve/Ambroisie).

Antoine Tamestit is professor at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris. He plays on a viola made by Stradivarius in 1672, loaned by the Habisreutinger Foundation. Together with Nobuko Imai, Antoine Tamestit is co-artistic director of the Viola Space Festival in Tokyo, focusing on the development of viola repertoire and proposing education programmes.

Born in Paris, Antoine Tamestit studied with Jesse Levine at Yale University and with Tabea Zimmermann. He was the recipient of several coveted prizes including the William Primrose Competition and the first prize at the Young Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions, BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists Scheme, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2009.

Antoine Tamestit is represented by Intermusica. 2014/15 season / 739 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.

Reviews

L'Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (Tugan Sokhiev) / Martinů“Antoine Tamestit has once again demonstrated the scale of his talent. Creating a sound which was bronzed yet capable of infinite gentleness, he particularly shone in the cadences reserved for him alone. The panting dash that following the ecstatic calm of the Molto adagio was breathtaking. As an encore he offered the beautiful viola version of a moving Sarabande from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite no. 3. An opening into universal calm…”Classic Toulouse, November 2014

Mostly Mozart Festival, Lincoln Center / Bach and Hindemith“His playing was distinguished by a lightness and rhythmic buoyancy that illuminated the varied dance characteristics of the suites. His crisp, spry sound in the faster movements became meltingly beautiful in the slower sections, like the Sarabande of the first suite; the whole work was enhanced by his graciously nuanced phrasing.”New York Times, August 2014

Trio Zimmermann, Théâtre du Jeu de paume / Mozart Divertimento in E-flat Major“Tamestit is one of the most sought-after violists. One can only be impressed by his instrumental mastery and especially his powerful tone…”Les Echos, April 2014

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Matthias Pintscher) / Berlioz Harold en Italie“… a rip-roaring account of Berlioz’s Harold in Italy – helped by the charismatic presence of violist Antoine Tamestit. It’s a tough work to pull off – its solo viola part isn’t flashy enough to make it a concerto, yet it’s still the central focus of the piece’s storytelling. Tamestit was entirely inside the music, playing with unfussy, unshowy energy and generous lyricism.”Scotsman, February 2014

London Symphony Orchestra, Barbican Centre, with Valery Gergiev / Berlioz Harold en Italie“[Tamestit] gave a remarkably beautiful sound to his opening lines, and found some astonishing pianissimos within his viola. How remarkably clear he was in the second movement…inspired by the conviviality of Tamestit, the LSO found their best form of the evening here.”One Stop Arts, November 2013

“The best of the three performances came last. Antoine Tamestit, the viola soloist, brought a strong, forthright personality to the hero of Harold en Italie.”Financial Times, November 2013

“Tamestit was a richly expressive contributor, outgoing and intimate as required, tender also, his arpeggios immaculate and his virtuosity musically revealing.”Classical Source, November 2013

Mozart and Mantovani with Ebène Quartet, Wigmore Hall / Mozart Quintet in C major & Quinete in G minor, Bruno Montovani Quintet"There are few works in the classical repertoire as expansive as Mozart’s Quintet in C major, K515… Its long arching phrases were captured brilliantly here by the Ebène Quartet and viola player Antoine Tamestit, who brought out not just the work’s luminous elements but also its darker, wistful undercurrents. One could not have hoped for a better rapport between the players."One Stop Arts, October 2013

Hindemith Der Schwanendreher, Trauermusik and Viola Sonatas with Markus Hadulla, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Paavo Järvi (Naïve)“Ideally recorded, the Paris-born player captures all the haunting, flowing lyricism of the Op.11 No.4 Sonata, a piece whose big piano part is also superbly handled here by Markus Hadulla. Without compromising his tone, he delivers one of the more intense accounts on disc of the solo work Op.25 No.1. Hindemith’s notorious marking of its fourth movement…Tamestit attacks it with mesmerising ferocity. From both a performance and repertoire point of view, there is surely no better single-disc introduction to Hindemtih’s viola music for anyone still unfamiliar with it.“BBC Music Magazine, five stars, June 2014

“We live in a golden age of solo viola players, and Hindemith…is the beneficiary…Tamestit’s virtuosic performance is tinged with melancholy. In all four works, Hindemith captures the mournful pathos of the viola’s sound. Tamestit’s sumptuous tone is complemented by Hadulla’s diamantine pianism in Op.11, No.4, and by the sympathetic Frankfurt RSO under Järvi.”Times, ‘Album of the Week’, January 2014

Bach Suites (Naïve)“Bach's solo Cello Suites transfer painlessly to the viola, emerging simply an octave higher. Intonation is excellent, his musical intuition profound, and he resists any temptation to trespass on the tonal qualities of modern instruments.”BBC Music Magazine, five stars, June 2013

“From the moment Tamestit pulls his bow in the Prelude or the G major Suite (No.1), the music lifts right off its feet in a way that is hard to hear as anything other than a perfect fit.”Gramophone, June 2013